March 11, 2010 – 6:02 pm

Seeking the Giver


My wife Melissa is demonstrating an amazing amount of maturity these days.  I am both in awe and frustrated!  Here’s why…

As many of you know, we are finishing up our sabbatical.  Entering our last months, we are making multiple decisions – big ones, small ones, and many that open up a multitude of other decisions. These decisions relate to where we will be, what we will be doing, when… little things like that :)   So, important stuff.

And the PROCESS of these discussions and decisions is as telling as the results.  We are giving some of the work we and God have been doing in our lives and marriage a pretty good exercise.  How is our intimacy, how is our trust, can we say what we think, can we hear things we don’t like from one another, can we apologize?

I have to admit, I am a little more anxious than Melissa to get these conversations and decisions happening.  And although I wish we knew everything yesterday, I am proud that she is committed to waiting until she is confident in some things before moving forward.  Frustrated a bit, but proud.  She is bringing her strengths of thoughtfulness and discernment to our shared process.  And as I was telling a friend on the phone the other day, in watching her process I am reminded of a very good maxim… Seek the Giver.

back-story: when I was growing up in church, one of the principles that always came up when talking about spiritual gifts (those ways God supernaturally empowers people to serve) was, “don’t seek the gifts, but the gift-giver.”  In other words, don’t get overly-fixated on these specific gifts God can give (essentially a self-centered approach). Instead, seek God, and let His Spirit give gifts as God deems appropriate (see 1 Corinthians 12).

This came to mind as I was saying how one of the ways Melissa is discerning God’s desire is by being involved in a local Bible study on Jesus.  She isn’t only sitting with God and asking, “should we move to X?” every day.   Instead, she is connecting well with God, for the sake of their relationship alone.  I’m pretty confident that as she does, God is and will speak to those specifics because God loves her and knows they are important questions.

Thank you beloved for this reminder.  So glad to be doing this with you!



March 10, 2010 – 5:28 pm

Theology After Google Conference


I am attending this conference for the next few days in Claremont.

description…

Why “theology after Google”?

Progressive Christian theologians have some vitally important things to say, things that both the church and society desperately need to hear. The trouble is, we tend to deliver our message using technologies that date back to Gutenberg: books, academic articles, sermons, and so forth. We aren’t making effective use of the new technologies, social media, and social networking. When it comes to effective communication of message, the Religious Right is running circles around us.

Hence the urgent need for a conference to empower pastors, laypeople, and the up-and-coming theologians of the next generation to do “theology after Google,theology for a Google-shaped world. Thanks to the Ford funding, we’ve been able to assemble a stellar team of cultural creatives and experts in the new modes of communication. We are also inviting a selection of senior theologians, and well as some of the younger theologians (call them “theobloggers”) whose use of the new media (blogging, podcasts, YouTube posts) is already earning them large followings and high levels of influence. For two and a half days, in workshops and in hands-on sessions, in lectures and over drinks, these leading figures will be at your disposal to teach you everything they know.

Excited to be with like-minded people and exercise my thinking a bit.  Must also admit I’m wondering how this conversation can stretch beyond academics and the “haves” of this world.  Will the playing field really be leveled by our postmodern reality, or further stratified by technology and wealth?  My presupposition coming in is that people WANT to be more active and include the whole body of Christ in formation and theology,  but will probably attempt to do so using new means that are not any more effective than the old ones.

They are streaming the conference

Stay tuned for posts from the conference…



March 8, 2010 – 3:18 pm

Second generation faith


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We’ve all heard the saying from Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words.” He never said it.

I’m in Acts at the moment. It’s full of the witness of words. Peter at Pentecost; Stephen on trial; Phillip with the Ethiopian eunuch; Peter before Cornelius and his household; Paul wherever he went.

What did they say? Surprisingly nothing about being good. Theirs are not the sermons and exhortations of moralists.

According to CFD Moule,

This is precisely what distinguishes the New Testament Gospel from a great deal that has passed for Christian teaching ever since. The moment you get to “second-generation” Christians, the danger arises that they may forget the vital thing which changes life—the power of Jesus, crucified and risen—and preach and teach instead the results rather than the cause.

Evangelism in Acts starts with what God has done and what we have done to warrant his judgment.

Some people respond with ridicule and persecution. Others ask, “What must we do to be saved!” The answer is, Repent, be baptized and your sins will be forgiven and you will receive the Holy Spirit (Acs 2:37-38).

Why didn’t the apostles exhort their audience to try harder? They knew their best efforts had ended in shame and defeat. Only the death of Christ and his life through the Holy Spirit could transform them from cowards to bold witnesses.



March 5, 2010 – 11:15 am

why i’m part of a learning community


Here's one more reason why I love being part of a learning community:

"In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer

March 4, 2010 – 7:24 am

Introducing Lesedi


My friend Doris is the mother of two boys, and really wanted to have a little girl one day. Last year, she became pregnant with her third child. Doris is HIV-positive, and so her friends were very concerned about her health as well as the health of her baby. We've been praying steadily for Doris, and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl in early December 2009. Both Doris and baby Lesedi are doing well, and I finally got to meet Lesedi this week. Her name means "Light." She's beautiful.

Doris and me



Me holding Lesedi, who looks extremely startled in this picture















Melinda holding a sleeping Lesedi, with Doris and me














Group photo! Sarah, me, Lesedi, Doris, and Gopolang (Doris' younger son)


March 4, 2010 – 3:17 am

With the Girls at Emily’s


I've had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks hosting my good friend Melinda, who came to visit from California. Melinda and I were roommates the semester I studied in Italy, and are seasoned travel buddies... we added a few journeys to our repertoire, having previously only traveled together in Europe. It was great to introduce an old friend to my home and friends here in South Africa. Here are a few pictures from an afternoon we spent hanging out in Sosh with Emily and her daughters.

Me, Melinda, and Sarah with Emily and her girls: Precious, Lungile, and Pretty















Games with Lungile: "One day I go to Congo, to see the people of Congo..."















Melinda making faces with Lungile















Mel and the girls: Precious, Lungile, and Pretty, and their cousin Nthabiseng in the background


March 2, 2010 – 8:48 pm

LIfe Back Home




















































We returned a week prior to Madri Gras Day itself - just as the tide of carnival crescendoed! It was great to join the city in such celebration after the Super Bowl and roll into carnival, the vortex of our culture and life here. We had a shrimp and crawfish boil, did parades with our turf camp set up hours before they rolled, caught lots of worthless stuff that we all cherish here, and enjoyed the joy and privilege of all being together again!

























































Susanne and I simply enjoyed playing together and with everyone, watching our boys have such fun and the blessings of living in a society where we are so blessed.



































































Thanks for all the support and love shown to my community, family, Susanne.
Mike






March 2, 2010 – 3:17 am

Born to rule — a movement on the skids


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I’m still in New Zealand talking about movements. Tomorrow we’re in Palmerston North. Last stop Christchurch.

While I was here this story broke about the Destiny movement led by Bishop Brian Tamaki. It tells of the closure of its Brisbane congregation after the pastor and 90 people walked out.

They were upset about increasing demands for money by Bishop Tamaki in New Zealand. Tamaki is known within the movement as “the king”. As his number plate declares (above), he was born to rule.



February 27, 2010 – 6:31 am

What I’ve been up to lately…


It's been too long. I'm in the process of writing an email update, since I've been out of touch for several months! In the meantime, here is a handful of pictures illustrating the variety of places and climates I've been traveling through lately...
















"Winter" in Southern California. Me with my sister and her kids just before I left for the airport.
















Next stop: winter in Karlsruhe, Germany. I spent a little over 2 weeks in Germany, visiting a friend and exploring some ministry opportunities there.
















Me with a frozen lake and the Karlsruhe Palace in the background














From freezing temperatures in Germany to summer in South Africa, here I am hanging out with Granny's family in Soshanguve. Lungile, while braiding my hair, told me that my hair is too soft.














My friend Melinda came to visit just a few days after I got back to South Africa, and we went on a short trip to Cape Town. Here we are at the Cape Point lighthouse, getting pelted in the face with rain as gale force winds threaten to blow us off the edge of the African continent.
















A slightly more peaceful weather day on our Cape Town trip: here I am at a lookout point near Chapman's Peak.

I'm back in Pretoria now, getting some much-needed rest and planning the next "vision trip" to explore ministry in the UK. I've got a couple more weeks before I head out again...

February 26, 2010 – 9:17 am

sensory soul


During this Lenten season myself and some friends have been reading through John 20:19-29 as a Lectio Divina practice. As I've carefully read through this passage several times already this year one distinct theme has been coming into focus similar to the way the picture within the picture of a 3D image emerges after time. Based on my time in this narrative I'd say God gets a good kick out of us when we utilize those wildly wonderful senses he designed within us. And I wonder what the look is on God's face when we resign the development of our theological understanding to sensory-dulling environments like seminary classrooms and church pews.

Yes, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed but the story crescendo-ing up until that statement tells of a God who desires to engage the valued souls of his children through the beauty of their senses...

151255412_4ec15f621bJesus came and stood among them...” v.19 (includes all senses) 

Grandpa's have a distinct smell to them. My grandpa Simmons was an Indiana farmer and when you were near him there was an awesome blend of tractor fuel and listerine that hit your nose. My memory of grandpa also goes quickly to the taste of fresh picked corn on the cob.

If I grew up on the other side of the world and knew of my grandpa only through pictures and letters it just wouldn't have been the same.

Jesus didn't have to stand among the disciples and allow for a sensory level experience of his resurrected self. He could have simply sent the equivalent of a text message, but he understood that without a profound sensory interaction the memory wouldn't leave the vivid imprint on their soul that it did.

He stood with them. That distinct smell, his newly acquired wounds, all the idiosyncrasies that their senses helped them recall and discover Immanuel. God is truly with us.

JcolePeace be with you.” v.19 (auditory) “If you have ears listen and understand.” The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 11:15 are about all the prophetic preaching that people heard from John the Baptist. And In the context of freeing several deaf people into the promise land of sound Jesus encourages the crowd to listen with those strange and beautiful looking things on either side of their head. St. Benedict of Nursia coined a phrase that deeply connects the ears with our spiritual development, 

Listen, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.”

The ears then are a major part of our body's spiritual formation team. Maybe that's why St. Francis supposedly had conversations with birds. In their songs he heard something deeper that connected with his soul.

With this twice repeated phrase in John's narrative Jesus' tender and carefully chosen words diffused a bomb and the disciples began to breath a sigh of relief that would change their sense of peace from that day forward. The sound of the Prince of Peace speaking the words, “Peace be with You,” seems as if it might land with more weight to it than if it were spoken by someone else.

Allowing the things we hear -cries, police sirens, laughter, etc.- to travel beyond our head and into our heart radically changes the way we choose to respond.


401713623_aae4e5a753_m"He showed them his hands and his side."
v.20 (visual) Gross. It's a visual with enough haunting force behind it that it will be evident every moment from then on when they speak of their crucified and risen Brother. Like the rubber neck drivers passing by a bad accident on the highway the disciples must have been in stunned awe while looking at the marks that resulted from having huge spikes ripped in and then out of delicate flesh just a few days prior to this.

And as unsightly as this revealing of wounds may seem, it shouted, “Yes, I'm the risen Son of God but wait... I am also your brother Jesus, and I ooze and I bleed and I stink as much as anybody.” If we can't allow our eyes to stay here and absorb the scene it's likely we'll idealize, water down, de-scandalize the reality and implications on the ultimate lynching event in history.

Allowing their eyes to rest on those fresh wounds and fully take in the entire image of Jesus the disciples response is described as “overjoyed.”

IMG_0228 "He breathed on them." v.22 (touch) 

If you place your hand just three feet from your mouth, take a deep breath, and blow toward it, you can barely feel it, right? So, I wonder if -He breathed on them- was a condensed version of him walking around and taking each individual firmly by the shoulders, looking him in the eye with up most intention, and attending to him uniquely and concluding with those unimaginably fulfilling words, Receive the Holy Spirit.

I imagine this to be the ultimate gale force sensory experience for the disciples. It's the climactic explosion that made everything up to this point in their life make sense. His breath, those words, the wounds, the eyes, all combine into an experience that satisfies deeper than anything this world has ever or will ever offer. A feeling that could only be explained as being born again

Saintthomastheapostle "Reach out your hand and put it into my side." v. 27 (touch if not smell and sounds as well)

Just a few days earlier Thomas would be sitting at the dinner table with Jesus listening to him explain, This is my body that is broken for you. Take it. Ingest it. And remember me. For this particular disciple that experience would be forever paired with the surreal moment he placed his fingers into the gaping opening in Jesus' side. “OMG! It really is you!” It took a live and most grotesque sensory experience for Thomas to recognize his master conquered death. And even though Thomas gets a bad rap only known as the guy who doubted the resurrection, Jesus lovingly invited him into an experience of himself that he could feel.

There was no halo and no hovering a couple inches above the ground. Thomas discovered the evidence first hand that his resurrected friend and Lord had indeed undergone the heartless Roman torture unto death but was now shockingly standing right there inviting him to sense the divine. 

IMG_1368 Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8) Did I actually taste my coffee this morning or just habitually suck it down? Did I pause long enough to allow my eyes to take in the beauty of the sunrise? Or even the amazing creativity and color of the graffiti in the alley? Did I listen with the ear of my heart to the story being told by the alcoholic on the corner or the one within the song on the radio? Or what about the sounds of  the squirrel running up the tree outside my window?

Urban-art This portion of the story in John which I'll continue to be sifting through reminds me of the ongoing invitation to pause and pay careful attention to the variety of indicators of the incarnation's presence. Today, how will my taste, touch, smelling, sight, and listening impact my understanding of theology? Of Incarnation? Perhaps it won't lead to a revolution the way it did for the disciples in that room, but who knows? Maybe I'll pay closer attention. 

 



February 25, 2010 – 2:09 am

New Zealand tour


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Here I am working hard on Auckland Harbour in preparation for a tour of New Zealand.

Thanks to Ian for making it possible. Although next time I’ll skip lunch before I go sailing. Most of it ended up in the harbour.



February 25, 2010 – 2:07 am

Movements at a discount


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Right now Aussies can pick up Movements at a 20% discount through Koorong Books.



February 18, 2010 – 1:47 pm

“submerging in the sacred…”


IMG_1845 Yesterday afternoon I spent some time with this man, a friend of mine who I interact with at the Network House on Wednesday evenings. We kept each other company a bit but I couldn't help being preoccupied during our chat by the reflection of the church in the windows directly over his head. So, at the end of our time he was more than happy to allow me to capture the image. 

After pondering the results from the snapshot and the variety of possible metaphors a couple things stood out initially. First, the "One Way" street sign which made me think of...

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

And then my friend along with his sign makes me think of...

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)

So, then I got to thinking is my way to the Father through friends such as this brother and other disregarded "least of these" like him? Even at the risk of sounding quite formulaic about this... If I'm to see my time with this man as if it were time with Jesus himself then in some mysterious way he and other men and women who resign themselves to holding signs on street corners may in fact be the way, the truth, and the life for us. And if these days leading up to Easter are to be occasions for me to connect with the humanity and wounds of Jesus perhaps it's the most disregarded friends like this man that I need to be in intentional communion with. 

Lastly, I want to share this Lenten prayer that was passed on to me by my friend, Jeff Johnsen, that seems to somehow be on the same track...

Come, O Life-giving Creator,

and rattle the door latch

of my slumbering heart.

Awaken me as you breathe upon

a winter-wrapped earth,

gently calling to life virgin Spring.

 

Awaken in these fortified days

of Lenten prayer and discipline

my youthful dream of holiness.

Call me forth from the prison camp

of my numerous past defeats

and my narrow patterns of being

to make my ordinary life extra-ordinarily alive,

through the passion of my love.

 

Show to me during these Lenten days

how to take the daily things of life

and by submerging them in the sacred,

to infuse them with a great love

for you, O God, and for others.

Guide me to perform simple acts of love and prayer,

the real works of reform and renewal

of this overture to the spring of the Spirit.

 

O Father of Jesus, Mother of Christ,

help me not to waste

these precious Lenten days

of my soul’s spiritual springtime.

 

~ Edward Hays, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim 

 



February 18, 2010 – 12:52 pm

in defense of “missional”


The word "missional" is one of those words that came on by storm a few years ago and is already losing its cachet. It's been widely misunderstood and generally misused, and now some are calling for it to be jettisoned from our vocabulary all together. I was tempted to jump on the bandwagon until I read Christopher Wright's examination of the word in the introduction of his notable book, The Mission of God. Wright makes a strong case for the importance and use of the word missional especially in light of what words like mission and missionary have come to mean in people's minds today.

I agree with Wright's assessment that the word mission now refers to all kinds of human endeavors, eternal or not. Lots of people, businesses, and churches have personal and corporate mission's statements that attempt to describe the unique task they've set out to accomplish. That kind of focus can certainly be helpful, but in our attempts to distinguish ourselves from others we inevitably end up using mission in a narrower, more individualized, customized sense. Mission is what we do and how we do it. Hopefully our unique missions are connected to the mission of God, but they're rarely assumed to be synonymous with the mission of God.

Missionary has become an even more limiting word. Missionaries are seen as unusual people who are called to carry-out the task of mission usually in some far away place. Not many people can identify with the calling of the missionary and even fewer would want to be one.

It's against this backdrop that the word missional entered our conversation. It's not a verb that refers to a customized task, (our mission), or a noun that refers to a unique kind of person doing a unique kind of work (i.e. a missionary). It's a powerful adjective that denotes that whatever comes after it is related to or characterized by the mission of God to redeem and reconcile all of creation. A missional life then is a life that is actively experiencing and extending God's redemption and reconciliation. And a community is only missional if it is collectively experiencing and extending the redemptive and reconciling mission of God.

As an adjective, missional redefines everything that follows it and gives it new meaning and identity. It reminds us of who we are, who we're related to, and the ultimate mission we have all been invited to participate in. And that makes it worth keeping.

February 18, 2010 – 4:01 am

Don’t pass the torch!


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Don’t pass the torch — start with it in their hands.
Floyd McClung

You’ve got to listen to Floyd on church planting movements to catch his heart for Africa and the world. Visit his blog to download the audio or video of his series on CPMs.